Cricket and the Taliban

Season 10, Ep 18: It's far from the most important question facing the country. But given that Afghanistan's cricket team has been a consistent good-news story for the last couple of decades, those who follow the game worry about what will become of it with the Taliban back in power. Shadi Khan Saif is a journalist who has covered Afghanistan politics for years, and who escaped from Kabul the night before joining The Final Word.

Also this week: Justin Langer's tenure as Australian coach remains fraught, with players angry that Cricket Australia publicly backed him before meeting with them. Malcolm Conn of the Sydney Morning Herald also joins the show to talk through the developing story. Plus, we prepare for England and India's third Test, more runs for Fawad Alam as Pakistan play West Indies, Adam is back from holiday, and Ian Botham is the UK's new trade envoy to Australia. Mmmmkay.

Your Nerd Pledge number this week:
8.50 - David Whiteley

Story Time 59 – Rally round Rakheem, Clifford, and Jerome

Last weekend: this was fun. Daniel Norcross once more plays the role of Adam Collins with panache and aplomb. Sounds delicious. And we have a huge amount of fun with a particularly dastardly number, a creative solution, a look at the world's biggest roundabouts, the best ducks, the most running, and a Trinidad legend of 1928. Jump in.

Audio is here.

Your new Nerd Pledge numbers:
7.75 - Timothy Waud
2.12 - Darren Smith
3.07 - Dan Forman
3.90 - Nigel Browne
11.37 - Tanya Wintringham
9.04 - Chris Arkle

Plus revisits and confirmations.

TFW Daily

Lots of fun happening in the pod feed and on YouTube as well. When India win matches, we get hundreds of thousands of views. When they have a bad day, we get about 14. But we'll carry on the same way regardless, for you on Patreon if not for anyone else.

The latest video on Root's latest masterpiece is here.

Or check out Geoff's epic Joe Root tweet thread here.

Tough days out there across Australia. Chatting to people on the Discord is helping a bit, some low-pressure company. Some of our listeners are in hotel quarantine. Many are lockdown. Winter is gradually fading. Hang in there.